


a kindle, a glare, a destruction

by alsahm



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cats, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Roommates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-15
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:33:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21797674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alsahm/pseuds/alsahm
Summary: Felix moves in, eats Dimitri's food, then asks if he wouldn't mind a roommate, in that order.
Relationships: Annette Fantine Dominic & Felix Hugo Fraldarius, Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Felix Hugo Fraldarius
Comments: 15
Kudos: 139





	1. so they were roommates

**Author's Note:**

> series is a bit flashficcy so i'm sorry if updates are short! our setting is modern day new york city, although the major religion is still that of the church of seiros.
> 
> cheers @ rook who is my favorite dimilix partner ♥

Felix is on Dimitri's threshold laden with two cardboard boxes, a bulging backpack, and the expectant look of someone who belongs on the other side of the door.

Dimitri blinks, reangles his head. When Felix and half his life possessions are still there, he steps aside and says, "I didn't realize you had things with you. You should have told me; I would have come down to help."

"No need," Felix replies, and enters. He's dressed casually in a navy cardigan and black sweatpants, hair tied back as usual. "Your room's the west-facing window?"

They are all his rooms, because Dimitri moved here alone following Dedue's departure overseas, but this intelligence he assumes is of no interest to Felix. So: "Yes."

Felix nods, decides, "Then I'll take morning sun," and marches to the spare room with such authority that it takes Dimitri a moment to process. He lags in following; when he pokes his head into what might have become a home gym but more than likely was to remain empty given the overabundance of space in the loft, Felix has set his things down and is giving the ceiling-to-floor glass window an appraisal, arms akimbo. 

Dimitri knocks on the open door before stepping in. "Felix?"

A grunt.

He means to ask what exactly it is that Felix is doing, arriving unannounced on a Saturday morning weighed down with his things as if this were arranged prior, as if they have properly spoken at all in the past couple years. He means to, but what comes out instead is, "Can I… get you something to drink?"

"Water," says Felix, because he is Felix. He sheds the cardigan forced upon him by the weather to reveal first a white tank with a grinning emoji, second his taut muscles. Then he turns to the task of unpacking his things.

Dimitri opens his mouth to speak but can find no words in a human sequence, so he retreats to the kitchen, where he grabs a bottle from the fridge and quietly updates his DoorDash for two. When he returns Felix has set his backpack in the closet and produced an inflatable mattress from one of the boxes. Strands of hair have escaped the tie into his eyes to his clear frustration, but he's too occupied struggling with the pump to fix it. Dimitri draws forward and nearly tucks the hair away before remembering himself, clearing his throat, and proffering the water instead.

Felix says, "This thing is sweating."

_So are you_ , Dimitri notes, but says, "It was in the fridge." Aloud it sounds stupider than intended, so he adds, "The water inside is cooler than the vapor outside, so it's condensed on the bottle."

"I _know_ that," says Felix, scowling, but the malice in his expression is lost when contrasted with his inexplicably cheerful shirt. Dimitri could laugh. Instead he breathes deep and apologizes, and Felix unscrews the bottle with a muttered, "Never mind. Thanks."

"My pleasure," says Dimitri, which offends Felix so much that he scrunches his eyes shut to down the water, then chokes because he drank it too fast. Dimitri feels at once as if he could laugh, as if he should shuffle forward, as if he's a stranger in his own home; here is Felix, standing before him after all these years with neither buffer company nor an explanation, in comfortable clothing and with boxes of his belongings, apparently fulfilling what they had imagined as children—that he and Dimitri and Sylvain would live together come college and Glenn and Ingrid could visit, but there was no way Sylvain would allow Inga to live under his roof and the same applied to Felix and Glenn, and the vision is so unreal that Dimitri must be imagining it; perhaps even he has been imagining the entire world, this place and this weather and himself, all so especially strange and growing stranger, nauseating, inescapable—and then he feels the sharp press of jagged nails into his palm and the unreality recedes because Felix is speaking only saying nothing conveying annoyance and Dimitri's leg is vibrating and someone is knocking and calling his phone.

Ah. The food.

"You are staying for dinner," Dimitri says, which could be a question or an invitation or a statement or all three at once. In the place where the nausea lurked moments earlier there is an unchristened anxiety which his heart deigns to shape into hope. 

Felix has always looked at him like no other. He looks at him and sees beyond. Of late it has been that he has no taste for that which he sees.

He has missed him. He feels like has ached for his company since the day he was born.

"Obviously I'm staying," says Felix, and stalks to get the door. He even tips the Dasher. Minutes later they're at Dimitri's barstools with take-out kung pao between them, Dimitri having offered Felix the disposable chopsticks and himself stuck to an aging plastic spoon. Both of them were hungry; the silence spreads over them not uncomfortably as they eat what must be mediocre given Felix's reaction. Dimitri finishes first and makes two feeble attempts at conversation before he notices Felix's gaze transfixed on the hole in the wall in the other room.

God, he really should have covered that with a painting or something.

"Was that there when you moved in?"

Dimitri smiles. He generally considers himself good at smiles, but then this is Felix and his hawk eyes and their piercing damage. 

He says, "You have me as always, Felix. No, it was an accident the day of."

"What with all the furniture," says Felix, scanning the apartment theatrically. Dimitri's brought-in furniture consists of a futon in front of the television, one desk, and the luxury pieces in his bedroom. His decorations include all his other belongings thrown haphazardly around the hardwood floor—laundry, old textbooks, at least seven swords. 

Dimitri points out, "I was not expecting company."

Felix snorts. "You've always lived like a boar." 

"Boar," tries Dimitri, weakly. He's hurt to see that Felix isn't even looking at Dimitri or his apartment or his impressive collection of swords anymore; rather he, _Felix_ , is texting someone, scowling at his phone as if it refuses to speak English. 

Then he sighs and clicks it shut and says, "I need a place to stay."

Oh, but he has never been good at lying. 

But then neither has Dimitri been good at refusing him. His heart pounds in his ears.


	2. home

Dimitri is a boar.

Felix knew this and knows this but had allowed himself to forget somehow all the ways in which it is true. 

Before it was because Dimitri didn't know better; where Felix's mother would make him clean before the maid arrived on Mondays and Thursdays, Dimitri never had such stipulations, and if Felix complained about this he'd be reminded that that was simply how things were in their home and Felix was welcome to move in with the Blaiddyds if he so pleased. 

(Of course his mother was simply being his mother when she suggested it; well into his teens Felix wasn't allowed to stay the night at any of his friends' houses, although they were always welcome at his. It was frustrating if a fact of life, which made the idea of someday following his brother's example and moving out to live in a shitty apartment with his friends so much more alluring. The day he turned eighteen Felix stepped out of his father's mansion and into Sylvain's surprisingly clean apartment, and by then so much had happened to their family that neither of his parents had a negative word to say.)

Now he's boarish because the two dishes Dimitri owns need to soak and the utensils have never flirted with soap; because he has three work shirts and two pairs of pants that can be worn alternately and laundered optionally, and he can always buy more underwear instead of washing his old ones; that showers and vegetables and anything involving order are up to Dimitri's discretion, and his judgement was impaired the same day as his sight. 

Dimitri is a mess. He's been a mess for so long that it's become a toxic norm. He coughs and chokes and slips on it and doesn't realize he's been doing it minute after minute, day after day, and if brought too suddenly to his notice, his beastly anger may flare and raze even more. 

His is not an apartment but a pigpenthouse. 

He will take so much patience and labor Felix scarcely knows where to begin.

* * *

annie 🐦  
  
annie 🐦  
you just???? went over unannounced?????  
yes.  
he lives like an animal.  
he's been stewing in his own filth for so long he can't even smell it.  
annie 🐦  
felix!!  
you are so mean!!  
🐗  
annie 🐦  
aside from that was he ok?  
no.  
annie 🐦  
i didn't think so… he's working sooo much and he looks so tired whenever i see him...  
when do u want me to drop off your stuff btw. i need my trunk for when we pick up glenngrid and idt they'll let me through security with all your swords ⚔️⚔️⚔️  
  
they're good swords.  
annie 🐦  
i didn't say they weren't!!  
😶  
annie 🐦  
🙄  
i'll take a sick day!! tomorrow ok?  
👍  


* * *

"Oh my god," says Annie, trying to remove her boots and take in the entirety of the apartment at the same time. "This is incredible."

"Keep them on," advises Felix. He shuts the door with his hip, three swords in hand, then drags his shoes across the lack of a doormat in demonstration. 

"Oh," says Annette, who in Felix's last abode was confronted multiple times about her heels clacking on his wooden floors and tracking dirt on Sylvain's carpets. She rezips her left boot so she is free to gawk openly at the apartment again, which in fairness is closer to a suburban home than her and Mercedes's dinky studio. "Okay. This. Is. Huge! Do I get a tour?"

To which Felix offers his arm like a god-damn gentleman, and she gleefully takes hold. He introduces her to the kitchen and its two plates and three utensils, to the fridge and its endless collection of bottled water and frozen dinners, to the pantry's year-supply of shitty ramen. Here is the coat closet with its one coat and Dimitri's two pristine pairs of loafers next to his dying sneakers, and none of Felix's affects because they are still in Annette's car ("We could've put them in if you didn't prioritize your _weapons_!" "You'll find my priorities are in order"). Here is the-room-with-the-video-games, innominate because Felix has not had the opportunity to probe Dimitri about its official christening. Here in the most hallowed corner is a statue of Saint Seiros and candles bearing Saints Cethleann and Cichol and Macuil and Indech, because Dimitri still has place in his heart for them (by now Felix has decided to maintain faith and a fondness at least for Cethleann, but bears no inclination toward Seiros herself). 

Now a spare room. Another spare closet. Half the place is trashed and the other half is empty, although there's been a paltry attempt by Dimitri to move messes into corners since Felix arrived last week. Most cardboard boxes sit taped and stacked like they're furniture, Dedue's responsible handwriting announcing the contents inside; some are open and overflowing with Dimitri's belongings and the traces of an urgent search for a particular article of clothing or document. Annette discovers swiftly also the reason Felix suggested she keep her shoes: the floor is littered with crumbs and chips and the sticky residue of dropped drink and to be frank, "He probably has fleas."

"Felix," says Annette softly, with her big blue eyes and her pink pouting lips, and even if he's probably right Felix is made to feel guilty. Annette's kekkei-genkai and make it about Dimitri for the OTK.

Dimitri Dimitri Dimitri. All these years and it's still Dimitri, always Dimitri. 

Here is his sty.

"Wait," says Annette. "This is Dimitri's room, won't he be upset? Oh my god, I bet you don't care because you alreadymoved in without asking!"

"I asked," says Felix, crossing his arms and pulling up his chin to look down at her. The sequence of events doesn't matter, and matters less when he's taller. 

Annette crosses her arms back, unimpressed.

"Up to you," shrugs Felix. "He won't be home for hours."

It feels like living with a ghost. Their schedules oppose such that they barely see each other; Felix claimed the lucrative night shift at the luxury rec center a block over, and Dimitri still works the 10-6 or later at Areadbhar & Aegis. Post-Sylvain, Felix no longer hears any songs from the shower (and anyway they have different bathrooms) or has his food stolen (Dimitri remembers Felix's favorites and often orders take-out for two) or sees tyes on the fucking doorway. They communicate mostly through a shitty magnet notepad on the fridge from the overstock of last year's A&A conference: _Please don't drink the milk it is expired_ ; _I am still lactose intolerant and uninterested in your milk_ ; _Sorry, I didn't want to take any chances. By the way, there is a spare key under the mat which you may use. I will have a copy made for you soon_ ; _Are you praying to Seiros to get robbed? When is rent due. ; Please do not worry about it._

Thinking on it Felix adds, "I'm pretty sure I could intentionally stab him and he would apologize to me."

"I'm worried about him," Annette agrees. What she doesn't say is _I'm worried about you_ , because even as she knows that, Annette knows him. She knows he is tired, too.

"Annie," says Felix, because it is time for the tour to proceed. Here is the east-windowed room. "Decorate?"

She grins because this is what she was waiting for, and in her excitement tosses him her keys, except she misses so wildly that when Felix jumps for the catch he crashes to the floor. She's laughing, a sound lovelier than these walls must ever have had the privilege to hear, and then he's smiling, too, as she commands his prone form with a soft kick, "Go get your stuff!" 

* * *

ingrid 🦄, +5 others  
  
ingrid 🦄 created the group.  
ingrid 🦄 added Dedue, sylvain 🐀, Ashe, Mercedes, annie 🐦, and you to the group.  
  
ingrid 🦄  
All, I'm concerned about Dimitri.  
  
Mercedes  
Yes, agreed... He wasn't quite himself at mass, I don't think it's good for him to be alone at the moment.   
annie 🐦  
i've been checking in at work, but maybe someone can room with him?? isn't his apartment huge for one person??   
sylvain 🐀  
Dude it's massive Ive been trying to get him to throw a party forever but tfw Dimitri 🙄   
Ashe  
That's an idea but can anyone even afford ¼ his rent?   
Ashe  
At Annette, not Sylvain   
annie 🐦  
ummm i definitely can't   
annie 🐦  
mercie can't either lol… ingrid and dedue are out of state right   
ingrid 🦄  
Yes, we're both out of country. We're in Oxford and Dedue left for Cape Town about a month ago.   
ingrid 🦄  
I like that idea, Annette.   
annie 🐦  
sylvix??? @Sylvain @Felix   
what.   
did you just call us sylvix.   
sylvain 🐀  
LMAO   
annie 🐦  
it's easier!! 💕   
whatever   
sylvain 🐀  
Well our lease is up next month but I can't   
sylvain is planning on being homeless   
sylvain 🐀  
But it's fine bc Felix can plan on getting that ass   
felix can plan on collecting sylvain's life insurance   
Dedue  
Please do not refer to Dimitri as "that ass"   
sylvain 🐀  
Sorry. America's ass*   
Mercedes  
🏴   
ingrid 🦄  
Sylvain.   
Dedue  
Hello everyone. I fear I am at fault for the current circumstances.   
Ashe  
Dedue, it's not your fault!   
annie 🐦  
noooo Dedue don't blame yourself!! no one's at fault for something like this!!   
annie 🐦  
we just need to work together for him 🤗   
Mercedes  
Yes!   
macuil everyone shut up i'll do it   
annie 🐦  
aww felix!! you're the best!!   
sylvain 🐀  
Felix was just gonna hobo at his dad's anyway   
sylvain 🐀  
jfKLA   
sylvain 🐀  
fjFQqqqqqqqqqqqqqq   
annie 🐦  
??!!   
sylvain 🐀  
FELIX THREW A CHOPSTICK AT ME LIKE A FUCKING DART WHAT THE FUCK   
dinner's ready 🤗  


**Author's Note:**

> group nouns for cats: a **kindle** of kittens; a **glare** in general; a **destruction** in the wild.
> 
> you can [rt this fic here](https://twitter.com/lumenize/status/1206006607898906625)!


End file.
